I would not say Pat Burt “championed a business tax” in that during his sixteen years in leadership Palo Alto failed to enact a business tax and now had budget cuts, having let off the hook a trillion dollars worth of market cap companies like Google, Facebook, Tesla headquartered here, as a favor to landlords. Rebecca Eisenberg a complete outsider and failed candidate for planning commission arguably is the one that got business tax on the agenda during campaign as current council, again, put it off.
This election means either business as usual — rule by landlords and “downtown interests” — and a false dichotomy between “the Residentialists” and “Build Baby Build” — or something encouraging by a strong showing of also rans like Eisenberg, Lee, Templeton and Malone.
I doubt though I voted for him that Greer Stone can stay independent from that force given that he is mentored by Burt and Karen Holman, the only person who served with Burt in his first term but continues to support him.
Incumbents Tanaka and Kou though from different pseudo-camps both took the arguably racist dog whistle stance of excluding outsiders from Foothills Park — council voted 5-2 with their dissent to settle a lawsuit from NAACP and ACLU that claimed the park rules had disparate effects on Blacks.
I would think Palo Altans are already discussing a Burt recall on these and other grounds. He’s polarizing as much as popular.
Marcy is a Stanford grad and a major donor to the Crocker Museum of Sacramento; not to be confused with Marcy Freedman of San Francisco and San Diego who is a writer it would be cool if Friedman with an “I” painted Freedman with an “E” while listening to Liza with a Z not S.
Dawn with Mental 99 (Joe Gore Dawn Richardson duo) 2010
I know I know my math is off, but the headline references a song lyric, it’s been 25 years since a 25 yo sang such and such, plus I can only count to four, or by fours….
There’s more to say but for now I tagged this “music” “sfmoma’ “sex” I forget when I split “sex” and “sfmoma” into two categories. If you are a woman from SF, you are “sfmoma”. And “math” because drummers count by fours or other divisors.
He’s doing the best that he can. his clients all do it
they never say screw it
it’s an endeavor of sorts for a man.
meanwhile Tegan and Sara have announced they have canceled their tour of Ireland due to a gay potato band according to Bruce solar there at one time agent at absolute artist San Francisco or the agency group Los Angeles or shit I’m forgetting my own punchline
I won’t know until I walk into the ballot box drop off place also known as the polls which for me might be in front of Palo alto city Hall although I’d prefer something with a human attendant but right now I am wondering about an all female panel, on the basis of sex, featuring Raven Malone, Rebecca Eisenberg, and Cari Templeton also known as MET.I won’t know until I walk into the ballot box drop off place also known as the polls which for me might be in front of Palo alto City Hall although I’d prefer something with a human attendant but right now I am wondering about an all female panel, on the basis of sex, featuring Raven Malone, Rebecca Eisenberg, and Kari Templeton also known as MET.
As in the place where Ruth Bader Ginsburg notorious RBG would hear her opera, the Met.
As in I met Rebecca about two years ago walking our dogs and today I met Raven and Cari finally 48 hours before election day .
I published previously that my school board card likewise features three women or might likely Jesse Fletcher Latin America, Jennifer DiBrienza incumbent, Karna Niswarner.
How much better and fairer would our society be with more leaders who were women and people of color and women of color?
Cari Templeton told me that she has heard the stories of Pat Burt being a bully but vowed that if tried such with her she would “kick his ass”.
That earned my endorsement.
Kick some ass, Cari Templeton.
(She is also a mother of two from Atlanta, went to Vanderbilt where she had a dual major in theater and engineering, recently completed a competitive and rigorous masters of liberal arts from Stanford University the home team where she did original research on some under-studied manuscripts of the brothers Grimm fairytale collection and the economic impact of the stories as a set, in Germany. She said she would send me an e-file of her work. She is chair of the planning and transportation commission which is the launching ground for numerous recent council members including Mayor Karen Holman, and was endorsed by the local Democratic commission).
PS I published a lighthearted riff on the website of a leading popular local news service in which I gave pet names to six candidates and I called this one Karaage Temple Tana — topic was Japanese noodle culture and business— partly in honor of my friend and colleague Akira Tana whose father was a leader at the Palo Alto Buddhist Temple. But Bill Johnson who is a white supremacist asshole and publisher censored my comments in fact he censors all my comments or worse than that he occasionally lets me post he is such a child but a child with powerful backers hence a menace to free society. Reminds me how when I studied William Faulkner with Chauncey Loomis at Dartmouth our professor explainEd that William Faulkner had predicted the Nazis as Mississippi in books published before Hitler took power. And then on my way home from the farmers’ market I saw a bunch of douche bags with pick up trucks waving flags and honking about their trunk or something, their rump. Nothing but gas not liquid in the pump.
bw (backed with — record industry lingo, ie the b-side of a single)
Linda Otero who was wearing a United Nations Palo Alto film Festival T-shirt and caring a matching tote bag I missed took it for her colleague Yasmina both chick who I claim I meant by putting her on the COD list for my otherwise sold out train concert back at the Cubberley 300 capacity theater on January 28 my birthday 1998. I am posed next to a custom built and designed the logo EarthWise Sandwich Board that I had only put out twice before designer in San Francisco made it in the idea it was it would be in front of the library next to the bread old him owls bollards on days where I did a show.I am posed next to a custom built and designed logo EarthWise Sandwich Board that I had only put out twice before designer in San Francisco made it in the idea it was it would be in front of the library next to the Bret old him owls bollards on days where I did a show.
i’m not sure why I slept it from my car to the farmers market I was mainly there to meet Raven Malone and Kari Templeton and hand out flyers for my first choice which is Rebecca Eisenberg. but prophetically I ended up meeting Tommy Farley who is Dar Williams nephew and I paid him 20 bucks to let me put my shingle next to him. I am sort of vamping until Earthwise continues perhaps in a year. I am vamping which means repeating the same sequence of sounds or stalling although I could be Lamping which is black vernacular for…..Eating chocolate vanilla sarsaparilla husky Malewski yeah boy
Palo Alto we are listening Update: the first four judges all picked Eisenberg over Stone so I’m calling it: Rebecca 90, Greer 85, Steven 50, Cari 10, Raven 5, Ed O, Pat 0, Ajit 0, Greg minus 10.
I am hereby inviting the 10 Palo Alto City Council candidates to respond to a prompt: on your cell phone, sing a bar, a line or a verse from the song “When You Were Mine”. I will post the results on my blog, “Plastic Alto”. With the help of a panel of neutral, qualifed consultants, we will grade these submissions on a 100-point scale. I am partly responding to a column in the Los Angeles Times about Kamala Harris, a candidate for U.S. Vice President and the criticism she receives for singing, dancing to or mouthing the words to a Mary J. Blige song “Work That”, her “walk up” at rallies and events. As a concert promoter and former candidate for local office, I want a leader who can rock or dance or at least appreciate the arts. Sure, there is some decorum considerations; I’d advocate that, especially for a female candidate, you not shake your hips more than 40 degrees, or two directions — i.e. back and forth, (then stop). Marissa Mayer shook her hips briefly in the video for Mayor Ed Lee, based on the MC Hammer song “2 Legit 2 Quit”. But enough to send the message, and her guy won. AOC, before being a candidate for U.S. Congress, sang and danced for a promo film for her alma mater. And this drew derisive whistles from the Far Right.
In this context, the “You” of the Prince / Cyndi Lauper song could be Lady Liberty, or Democracy. I am seriously worried that depending what happens Tuesday, America’s 246-year experiment with Democracy will come to a close. I am saying this works on two levels: local and national. It’s a tool for undecided voters, but it’s also a prayer for peace.
If all you the candidate can do is memorize the words “when You were mine” and say them in order and without runningthemalltogether that’s, like, 10 points on the 100-point scale. Generally, you should be able to do better than me. But the winning piece, from someone likely to earn my vote or change my pencil ballot, should have pitch, phrasing, a sense of fun, or play or art. Bonus points for people who can add a counter melody, falsetto, melisma, or beat box interlude. Or as Robin says, show us a sense of joy. Your video should be between 10 and 60 seconds.
(This supercedes the July challenge for candidates to respond to Thelonious Monk. For the record, the partial score winners were: Rebecca Eisenberg, Tom Dubois and Ed Shikada — the latter two are not candidates but at least acknowledged the project).
Good luck. And thank you for your kinda sorta service.
Addendum, edit to add, Sunday 8 p.m., roughly 12 hours from the deadline, and I have one submission, one substitute submission, an exclusive interview on the topic of the arts, and a photo op. Another candidate convincingly said he would submit an entry.
Rebecca Eisenberg (received 6 p.m. Sunday)
Cari Templeton (says the name of the song, which is also a lyric, which is good for 10 points on the 100 point scale — by the way, I did consult with or make contact with four potential judges, i.e. entertainment professionals who can help authenticate how close the political campaign performances are to truly artistic utterances and attempts to correspond with the muse. To come…noon Sunday)
Cari Templeton 10 points of 100, incidental as part of a five minute interview on the value of arts policy in her envisioned Palo Alto City Council tenure
Steven Lee 20 points Saturday The candidate submitted two TikTok samples he made for his music that include needle drops of popular songs; in this one he leaps eight tmes, roughly with the beat (Raven Malone said that he was actually a bit off the beat, but close enough for politics; Aleta Hayes actually chimed in: Me: Do I give him partial credit? She: Absolutely, yes. This is great! LOL).
Actually my computer smartly reminded me that a year ago Steven Lee circulated this photo of him doing a charity event that includes rapelling by rope off a building, and since I have a friend named Hope Clark who is or was a Streb Dancer, I am including this for extra credit. So win or lose, Lee can respond next time with: I’m not musical, I’m not really a dancer, except in Plastic Alto. He lip synchs to Sara Bareilles “Brave” and I suggested he can garner a few more points potentially by submitting more content based on mimicking the dance moves in that video (seen by 110 million people).
Greg Tanaka -(-10 minus 10) Incumbent Greg Tanaka has not responded to the good faith offer to participate here, potentially win undecided music-loving voters but apparently has an algorithm that will interrupt my attempts to listen to Prince “When You Were Mine” by Reina Del Cid on YouTube and ask me for his vote anyways:
Check back before the polls close that is to say we have 48 more hours — I am going to push for more content, a better contest. If you are strangely here just for the music here is L. Marie Cook doing the a capella last verse, and Palo Alto’s Beaumann Edwards doing an instrumental bed of the first 2 minutes – -maybe I can get them to work together my Lions With Wings label.
In my research I found versions of this by: Prince, Prince live, Lake Street Drive, Lake Street Dive with Molly Tuttle, Har Mar Superstar, Bob Mould featuring Jon Wurster, Cyndi Lauper, Tommy Lee of Motley Crue, Tegan and Sara, Mitch Ryder, and Casiotone for The Painfully Alone.
Deadline passes, but this just in:
So I would say the results are
Eisenberg: 80
Stone: 80 (tie for first — pending a review by the judges)
Lee: 50
Templeton: 10
Raven Malone: 5 (she posed for a photo, and danced a bit while I was talking to Cari, and her partner Reggie Williams — not the NFL star — knows the song but she did not.
Lauing, Burt, Varma, Kuo: 0 (Thanks for listening: NOT)
Tanaka: -(-10) minus 10 – -he pays a media company to monitor my activity and interjecgt with his bullshit propaganda.
So my ballot is likely:
a) bullet ballot Rebecca Eisenberg:
b) Eisenberg, Malone, Templeton — all female on the basis of sex; MET;
or, as is my habit:
c) Eisenberg, Malone, Templeton, coinflip between Greer Stone and Steven Lee
d) Eisenberg, Stone, Malone, Templeton [*]
Or as Jonathan Richman, my close personal friend (met him twice) says: I’m so confused. There’s something about Rebecca Eisenberg that I’ve drawn a lot from so I hope Plastic Alto readers and Earthwise fans read this far and mark me, mark her.
Here was my scratch-track to get the candidates to try this:
I do both the basic deadpan blank verse delivery and a bit more confident if not any more tuneful a capella and phrasing. I’m not the candidate. You can take more than 20 minutes but please deliver by Monday 9 a.m. I will post the results in order received. I’m hoping for judges like Aleta Hayes of Stanford Drama and Dance; Will Riggs a commissioner, but he has 3 cds out; or Janis Stevenson, who taught music at Foothill.
andand: I am on the mailing list of a really cool guy who went to grad school with my good friend and I asked him to break the tie between Rebecca and Greer here. If blogging is the opposite of poltics and you want to know about the sausage and how its made – and I am the wurst — I dance like Jon Wurster — who says he will judge this same contest in 2024 — this is the 25th version. With a federal subpoena you can read the previous 24. Also, if its true as Wired says that the Russians hacked even me — anyone who ran for public office in America – than you can see other versions of me practicing this song.
Plastic Alto with Mark Weiss 